The 60th anniversary summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will be held in France and Germany on April 3 and 4. Eighteen years after the end of the Cold War, NATO has increased its membership to 26 countries, mostly European including numerous former Soviet republics. In Afghanistan NATO is waging its first armed conflict outside of Europe and its first ground war with the participation of armed units from all 26 NATO member states subordinated to US commandment. Rizoff debunks the myth that the EU was to act as a counterweight to the US in Europe, and examines the role of the NATO-EU-US military integration basically as an instrument for attaining imperial geopolitical objectives involving the encirclement of Russia.